Microsoft SMB Community Blog

Support for Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008 R2 coming

2009-11-06T19:21:25Z

Just a quick update for you about a topic that some of you have raised. In case you did not see it, the Microsoft Exchange Team announced earlier this week that based on the feedback we have received, the decision has been made to create and issue an update for Exchange 2007 enabling full support for Windows Server 2008 R2. According to the Microsoft Exchange Team’s blog post:

“Earlier this year we made a decision in one direction, and due to the feedback we have received on this blog and elsewhere, we have reconsidered. In the coming calendar year we will issue an update for Exchange 2007 enabling full support of Windows Server 2008 R2.”

Kevin Allison - GM Exchange Customer Experience

For those of you doing work with Microsoft Exchange Server, you may want to sign up to follow the Microsoft Exchange Server Team Blog for the latest news from them, in addition to being able to provide feedback to us on Microsoft Exchange.

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Eric Ligman – Follow me on TWITTER and RSS
Global Partner Experience Lead
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

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The Big Easy Partner Subsidy Program is back!

2009-11-05T22:42:45Z

I am very happy to be able to let you know that for a limited time, that the Big Easy offer is back in the U.S. and Canada! That’s right, from now through January 2, 2010, when your customers make a qualifying purchase of Microsoft technologies and submit their redemption request, Microsoft will send the customer a check (made out to you) for funds to help pay for your services as a Microsoft Partner! As was the case with previous releases of the Big Easy promotion, your clients can increase the amount of the Partner subsidy they receive in the following ways:

Purchase products from more than one product group. For instance, by purchasing qualifying Microsoft Office and Microsoft Windows Server licenses at the same time, they would receive a higher subsidy for each of those products vs. purchasing them separately.
Licenses with Software Assurance – Acquiring licenses with Software Assurance instead of just licenses increases the subsidy amount for each one.
Advanced or Enterprise Editions – The Advanced and Enterprise Editions of the products qualify for higher subsidy amounts than non Advanced or Enterprise Editions

Want to see what products are included in the Big Easy promotion? Take a look at the Included Product list on the Microsoft Incentives page. The team even posted a short video that you can watch to see how the Big Easy works. You can find all of the information on the Big Easy Offer, including an online calculator so you can see what your subsidy amount would be for various customer opportunities, on the Big Easy Offer page. For our Microsoft Partners in Canada, you will want to check out the Canadian Big Easy Offer page.

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Eric Ligman – Follow me on TWITTER and RSS
Global Partner Experience Lead
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

Bookmark on: MSDN , TechNet, and Expression

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Check out the new Microsoft Partner Network Community website!

2009-11-05T16:02:55Z

A couple years back, we introduced the Digital WPC site, providing a way for Partners around the world to join us for our WPC07 in Denver. The feedback was fantastic from Partners, so we have expanded it each year since. Now, Digital WPC makes a new transformation to bring you even more great information, resources, and connection, year round. Announcing the Microsoft Partner Network Community website!

Here you will be able to see hot topics, blogs, information, Twitter feeds, resources, and much more around the Microsoft Partner Network and from your peers around the world. So what are you waiting for? Head over to the new Microsoft Partner Network Community website, check it out, and let us know what you think. Also, we’re still looking for your input on the Microsoft Partner Network Portal as well: A new Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) Portal experience is coming soon. Give us your input.

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Eric Ligman – Follow me on TWITTER and RSS
Global Partner Experience Lead
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

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The New MSN Homepage with the best of Bing, social network access and more

2009-11-04T19:27:53Z

Today we launched a significant redesign of MSN to bring you a much better, richer, and easier experience with the information that is most interesting to you. The new MSN homepage offers a fresh new look that brings the best of Bing, the latest news and entertainment and instant access to social networks and comprehensive local information all in one place. You can check it out now at http://preview.msn.com.

So what are these new enhancements and improvements? Here is just a glimpse of some of the new features you can begin enjoying today:

The Best of Search from Bing

Bing is deeply integrated throughout the homepage and content experiences and brings you the best of search and Bing’s advanced decision-making tools.
Combines the best of search and media content to deliver the most relevant content for you.

Information and News You Care About

We’ve reduced links on the page by half and removed the clutter to deliver a fresh new design with simplified navigation and improved performance.
In-line high-quality video, top news and hot entertainment from trustworthy sources including MSNBC, FOX Sports and Hulu.
The new MSN Local Edition provides you a home base online with the most comprehensive local news and information.

The Most Convenient Way to Communicate

Windows Live What’s New (including Yelp, Flickr and Pandora), Facebook and Twitter integrated directly into the home page
View and update your status in-line, tweet, and see what your friends are up to without jumping to multiple sites.

Want to learn about more updates as they become available? You should probably start following the MSN Team on Facebook and/or on their blog. So head out to http://preview.msn.com today and give it a whirl. I think you will like what you see.

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Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman – Follow me on TWITTER and RSS
Global Partner Experience Lead
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

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Microsoft expands Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) coverage and cuts prices!

2009-11-03T18:15:19Z

Access to technology and cost savings are topics that are very important to customers everywhere and the announcement by Microsoft’s Online Services Team yesterday helps serve up a lot of both of these for Partners and customers! When we first announced the availability of BPOS as a solution available to bring Microsoft technology to customers in an easy and cost effective way, there was great feedback and excitement about it. Yesterday’s announcement takes this even further by including two big items:

The BPOS trial offering has been expanded to 14 additional countries (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, and Taiwan) and in Singapore, they will launch the service commercially.
The price for Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite has been cut to as low as $10 U.S. per user/month and the individual services prices on many items have been cut as well!

This means that for as little as $10 U.S. per user/month, you can have access to the entire Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite, which consists of:

If you have deskless workers, you can get the Business Productivity Online Deskless Worker Suite for only $3 U.S. per user/month, which consists of:

Microsoft Exchange Online Deskless Worker
Microsoft SharePoint Online Deskless Worker

To find out more, check out these resources:

Expansion of BPOS availability and price cuts announcement on the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog
Microsoft Press Pass announcement of these changes
Microsoft Online Services website

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Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman – Follow me on TWITTER and RSS
Global Partner Experience Lead
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

Bookmark on: MSDN , TechNet, and Expression

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,online services,BPOS,Business Productivity Online Suite,Deskless Worker,SharePoint,Exchange,email,Live Meeting,Office Communications Online,discounts,offers,specials,deals,Eric Ligman

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Identity of the Windows 7 Upgrade “Hack” Revealed and more!

2009-11-02T16:00:00Z

Shortly after I published my Regardless of what any hack says, a Windows 7 Upgrade is an Upgrade. What you need to know blog post, there was one particular statement that several people seemed to focus on. The statement in that blog post I am referring to is, “Over the past several days there have been various posts, etc. across a variety of social media engines stating that some “hack” (be it a person or a procedure) shows that a Windows 7 Upgrade disc can perform a “clean” installation of Windows 7 on a blank drive from a technical perspective.” Shortly thereafter, many came to the conclusion that the “hack” was a person and began speculating (and even some actually going so far as stating as “fact”) who the “hack” is that I was referring to in that post.

As promised in my Answers from Windows 7 Upgrade Install Hack post coming on Monday post from this weekend, here is the post where I will reveal the identity of the “hack” that I was referring to in that post. This is one of the many answers to questions I am putting up on the blog throughout today and the week. As those of you that have followed my Blog for some time know, a lot of the posts here are based on questions I receive and topics of concern I see in the Partner community.

After my Regardless of what any hack says, a Windows 7 Upgrade is an Upgrade. What you need to know blog post, there were a couple things I observed (and these are all important factors in how we got here and in the revealing of the “hacks” identity):

It appears “conspiracy-theorism” (yes, I know theorism is not in the dictionary) is very present
There appears to be a lot of reading through “pre-determined conclusion” lenses

Let’s start with the “conspiracy-theorism.” One theme that came up in several of the comments posted to my blog post, other blog posts, and other articles that came about from my blog post was, “Microsoft tries to make it hard for their customers/Partners,” or “Microsoft does not care about trying to help their customers/Partners be successful.” Really? I can assure you with 100% certainty that Microsoft is absolutely committed to working to improve the satisfaction and experience of all of our customers and Partners, which is the entire reason that the Customer and Partner Experience (CPE) effort that I left my former position at Microsoft to join in 2008 exists. Now does this mean that Microsoft has mastered all parts of it and that everything is rosy? Of course not (and no, contrary to several of the comments posted, I am not that blind to think they are). But know this, improving Microsoft’s customer and Partner satisfaction is a long-term, on-going journey that we are absolutely 100% committed to taking with you. Here are just two specific examples of this:

Just hours before my Windows 7 Upgrade post went up, Todd Weatherby, put his A new Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) Portal experience is coming soon. Give us your input post on my blog letting Partners around the world know that just as Allison Watson mentioned during WPC 2009, we are making significant improvements to our Microsoft Partner Network Portal based on input from our Partners to simplify your interaction with Microsoft and we are encouraging your input into this process. In that post, Todd calls out how all Partners around the world can give their input to us for this. If you haven’t taken this opportunity yet to provide your input on how to make your experience better, do so now.
With the launch of Windows 7, we have undergone numerous steps to not only improve the product, but also your experience with it and Microsoft. Let’s start with the sheer size of the beta, RC, and RTM trials we made available around the world so that Windows 7 could be the most tested Operating System possible to improve your experience with it. Or how about the the number of resources that the Windows 7 Team and others were putting into the market well in advance of the launch to help you get the most out of it? There’s the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to check your PC to see if it can run Windows 7. The collection of Windows 7 How To Videos to help you get the most from it. The Windows 7 Team Blog that brought you a wealth of information on Windows 7 up to and after the launch. Plus much, much more.

Now about those “pre-determined conclusion” lenses… It seems very apparent that many people commenting on my post, either directly on it or on any of the articles about it, figured they knew what it said even before reading it and/or did not completely read it before drawing their final conclusions or making their comments.

Just one example:

Several headlines show up stating, “Microsoft warns Windows 7 users that popular 'upgrade hack' is illegal,” then in numerous comments/emails, people state that I am telling them in my post that the processes published by (since they were called out specifically by readers, not me, in the comments) Ed Bott and Paul Thurrott cannot be used, are illegal to use, and/or should not be used or that I don’t get that either of these two are trying to help customers have a better experience. Really? Can someone please point that out to me? In my post I call out:
- “Technically possible” does not always mean legal.
- For you (those who have qualifying Windows licenses to upgrade from), since you have the previous version FULL Windows license and qualify for the Windows 7 Upgrade, you have the licensing rights to do a “clean” install.
- For those of you WITHOUT an existing FULL Windows license to upgrade from, you should be aware that an Upgrade license by itself is not a license to install and run Windows on your computer.
- People writing about these types of install solutions from an Upgrade disc should call out that in order to be legal, people need to have a qualifying license to upgrade from so that their readers do not misinterpret their articles/posts to say that because it is possible to do the install, then it is legal without the qualifying license to upgrade from.
- If the posts or write-ups you saw did include this information, then kudos to that writer for providing the accurate information.
Where in there did I state that the solutions proposed by either of these gentlemen cannot be used, are illegal to use, and/or should not be used? I flat out stated that if you own the right licenses, you can do the clean install, without calling out any procedure that can/cannot be used. Where did I state that either of them is not trying to help customers in their posted solutions?

So let’s get down to identifying the “hack,” I was referring to.

The “hack” is Ed Bott! Really? No, not really, regardless of how many people tried to convince you of that by making that claim since my post. In fact, just the fact that people implied that Ed Bott even could have been the person I was talking about shows that people did not read my post before jumping to their conclusions about what it was saying or they had their “pre-determined conclusion” lenses on when they did read it. As I said above, in my blog post I stated, “If the posts or write-ups you saw did include this information about needing the full license to upgrade from), then kudos to that writer for providing the accurate information.” Did you read Ed Bott’s post? If you had, you would have seen that Ed clearly states in his answer to the question, “So, does this mean I can install an upgrade version on a new PC I’m building?” Answer: “From a technical point of view, yes. But from a licensing point of view, absolutely not. The discounted price for an upgrade applies because you already paid for a license on the system you’re upgrading.”

Not only is Ed Bott not the “hack” mentioned in my post, but he is actually an example of what TO DO when posting information about this type of a workaround for clients. And this isn’t the first time Ed has done this either. How many of you read his, “The Vista license "loophole" that isn't,” post when this same issue arose about the double-install method with the Windows Vista upgrade media? Once again in that post, Ed calls out, “If you qualify for an upgrade license, this technique allows you to do a clean install, legally. If you don’t qualify for an upgrade license, then doing a clean install with this technique is technically possible but violates the terms of the license agreement.” He goes on even further to explain this to his readers. Personally, I would suggest that people posting about technical workarounds in the future, regardless of who they are, take a page from Ed Bott’s book of how to do it.

Ok, so if Ed Bott is not the “hack” I was referring to, then it must by Paul Thurrott! Really? No, not really. What did Paul Thurrott post that was factually inaccurate, intentionally misleading, or anything else that you would expect from a “hack”? Haven’t seen his post yet? Read it here. Paul does a step-by-step explanation in his post about how to execute the clean install and nowhere in the post does he tell people that this alleviates the need to be buy a full license of Windows 7 just because it works (unlike some others in the past, and currently have done). In fact, Paul, like Ed, is one of the people that many people have pointed to over the years as being one of the very helpful people in pointing out solutions to technical issues discovered.

Based on all of the speculation and cases of “opinionasfactitis” (pronounced: Opinion-as-fact-itis. You know, where someone states an opinion as a “fact” and then that “fact” continues to propagate as a “fact” like a contagious disease, in this case articles in tech publications/forums stating my post was calling out Paul directly), floating around, Paul obviously is/was of the opinion that I felt he was condoning piracy in his post or that I was stating he should not have published the information in his post based on his follow-up post.

In my opinion, no, Paul’s post is not condoning piracy and as stated above, nowhere have I said that either Ed’s or Paul’s posts shouldn’t be published or are condoning piracy. Yes, I do believe it would be beneficial if Paul had specifically called out in his post that this workaround does not alleviate the licensing requirements of the upgrade so that readers do not mistake his helpful post to be stating something to the contrary. Especially since there have been numerous comments on various blogs/forums and even articles written using Paul’s post as the “source” of this tip to get around the need to buy a full Windows license if you don’t qualify for the upgrade. So my only feedback on Paul’s original post is, would you mind including the quick few statements like Ed in your posts to eliminate all confusion on whether your post eliminates the need to be licensed properly so that these other people do not misinterpret your information that way? Because to answer the question posed in his follow-up post, while you would think that the line in the EULA that states, “To use upgrade software, you must first be licensed for the software that is eligible for the upgrade” that he quoted in that post would be obvious to understand, based on all of the comments and feedback of people stating the contrary about their impressions as they make their arguments, apparently it is not.

Before moving on, let me set the record straight. Ed and Paul, if either of you felt that my post from last week was implying that either of you are “hacks” or publicly condoning piracy, you have my sincere apologies here on public record, as in no way was that my intention. (In full disclosure, Ed and I did have a chance to connect directly on this over the weekend already; however, Paul and I have not)

So wait a minute… If Ed and Paul are not the “hacks” called out in the post, who is? Is it this guy that was listed by another online tech magazine as the target of my post? No, not him; however, I really do appreciate him going back and adding the following to his write-up just afterwards:

“Update: While it is not necessary to buy a full version of Windows 7 it is still a legal requirement to do so if you do not own a legal copy of either Windows XP or Windows Vista. The article did not make that completely clear.”

So then who is it? The “hack” I am specifically calling out in my post isn’t a “who,” it’s a “what.” A “what” you ask? Yes, a “what.” Take a look at the definition of “hack” in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (I know, because I did before my original post to ensure the wording I was using was accurate).

hack - a usually creative solution to a computer hardware or programming problem or limitation

The “hack” is any of the technical workarounds you see floating around (not any one in particular, it can be any of them out there that exist today or that come out in the future) that state that the Windows upgrade can physically be installed as a full product. Because let’s be clear, just as the title of my blog post says, “Regardless of what any hack (technical workaround) says, a Windows 7 Upgrade is an Upgrade.” And just like I have been saying for years, “Technically possible” does not always mean legal, so just because you “can” do it, that does not change any of the licensing terms or requirements. Just make sure you have the proper licenses first, as Ed Bott pointed out in his write-ups. Then as I said in my original post, “there are many, many, many, many of you out there that already own Windows licenses that qualify for the Windows 7 Upgrade, so this is a non-issue for you. That’s also why I called out that there are things you need to know (and those would be the licensing requirements listed in my original post).

So for anyone out there thinking my post was trying to “make an example” of someone as a “hack” or that I was calling someone specifically a “hack,” sorry to disappoint you. As I mentioned in the very beginning of this post, I have no doubt that “conspiracy-theorism” and “pre-determined conclusion” lenses had a lot to do with people coming to that conclusion. (Not to mention the “Opionionasfactitis” that was spreading rampantly) In all honesty, looking back, how many of you actually read my original blog post without any pre-determined notions as to what you already thought I was going to say, just because I chose the word “hack” in it vs. “technical workaround?” And those that had pre-existing notions of what I was going to say, how many of those were positive? People see the word, “hack,” mentioned by someone at Microsoft and quickly start to assume the negative side of it. Why?

As I said above, contrary to any beliefs out there, Microsoft is 100% committed to working with all of our customers and Partners to increase your satisfaction with our products and company. We know there are issues that need to be worked on and we are committed to working on them with you. For those of you that I have worked with for years, as I have always committed to doing in the past, I will continue to work to provide information and answers to address questions and concerns I see being raised and will continue to try to point you to where you can find the RIGHT answers to those questions. But to be clear, the RIGHT answer is not always the POPULAR answer; however, just giving the popular answer, if it is wrong, does no one any good anyway. Just like people trying to twist the solutions stated by Ed and Paul, that were designed to help address a technical challenge, to convince customers as being legal ways to “cheat the system,” does not change the real answer that an Upgrade is an Upgrade and you need a qualifying license to upgrade from. Whether I put up my post or not, the upgrade licensing requirements remain the same. But if putting up my post helped protect some customers from being told the wrong information by someone or helped clear up the questions for some of our Partners out there that service the needs of their customers on how this works, then it has served its purpose.

Also, after reading through the comments that I have seen on my blog post and in many of the articles and other publications on this topic, there are a few common themes I have been seeing that people seem most concerned with. Because of this, I will be putting up another post this week entitled, “Eric, I am soooo mad at you because” where I will try to address many of the themes and help answer and address these concerns, and some of them are very valid and very legit.

Note: One comment that continues to come up is that I am “avoiding” answering Microsoft’s procedure for the install. I guarantee you I am not avoiding it. I have submitted your various comments on this topic to the appropriate people for that topic and will be happy (believe me) to post the exact link to where you should go for this information as soon as I hear back.

As I noted over the weekend, I am going to be posting the answers to many of the questions I have received and continue to receive here on the Blog, so please keep the feedback and input coming. You can see many of these questions and answers posted here:

More Answers from Windows 7 Upgrade Install Hack post

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman – Follow me on TWITTER and RSS
Global Partner Experience Lead
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

Bookmark on: MSDN , TechNet, and Expression

Are Beta, RC, and RTM codes full product licenses to upgrade to Windows 7 from?

2009-11-02T16:00:00Z

One of the questions I received from my Regardless of what any hack says, a Windows 7 Upgrade is an Upgrade. What you need to know post, in addition to seeing this topic discussed by people in comments in several other places is, “I downloaded the Windows 7 Beta, RC, and/or RTM code for my computer so this qualifies me to use a Windows Upgrade license to get Windows 7 for my computer, right?” Here’s the answer to this question:

As you know, Microsoft often makes available the beta, Release Candidate (RC), or Release To Manufacturing (RTM) code available to people around the world to use on their computers for a limited amount of time. This serves several purposes, including giving people a chance to try out the programs before they are actually launched into the market and by allowing people to give us feedback on what they are experiencing with the product, such as issues, bugs, incompatibilities, features, etc. that our developers need to know about as they work towards the release of the final product. Beta and pre-release testers play a very important part in the software development cycle and their feedback to us is incredibly valuable. There is something very important to realize though about these versions of the products: Beta, RC, and RTM releases of the products do not include product licenses for the full/final release products. These are limited-time, trial code of the product.

If you remember the examples I gave in my previous post above:

So looking at the fact that Beta, RC, and RTM editions are just limited-time trials of the various products and do not include full/final product licenses, they would fall into the 2nd group shown here (Nothing + Upgrade License = Nothing). So, people with computers only having Beta, RC, or RTM versions of Windows on them would not qualify to use the Windows 7 Upgrade license to achieve having a full Windows 7 license (Again, an upgrade is just an upgrade and requires a full license to upgrade from).

Now, in order to make sure that my statement is not misunderstood, I am going to clarify even further. There are two categories of computers that people use the Beta, RC, and RTM code on:

1) Computers with Full Windows XP or Vista License Already (Click to view full size)		2) Computers without Full Windows XP or Vista License Already (Click to view full size)

For those people in group #1 above (computers with a Windows XP or Vista license already), you are eligible for the Windows 7 Retail Box upgrade since you do have a qualifying full Windows license (Windows XP or Windows Vista) for the Windows 7 Upgrade. Below is a visual of what you do/don’t have in this scenario:

(Click to view full size)

For those people in group #2 above (computers without a Windows XP or Vista license already), adding the Windows 7 Beta, RC, or RTM code to the PC does not make you eligible for the Windows 7 Retail Box upgrade since you do not have a qualifying full Windows license for the Windows 7 Upgrade. (Note: You do not have to download the Windows 7 Beta, RC, or RTM code to be eligible for the Windows 7 upgrade because it is the Windows XP or Vista license that qualifies you for the upgrade) Below is a visual of what you do/don’t have in this scenario:

(Click to view full size)

Now one of the comments that someone sent me via my Twitter account was that since the upgrade did physically install over the RTM code, they thought that meant that it must mean that the RTM code is a qualifying product for the Windows 7 Upgrade license to make it a full Windows 7 License. If you look at the first set of pictures above, you will see this is not the case. If you do not have a qualifying Windows license (XP or Vista) to upgrade from, the Upgrade alone is not enough to get you a Windows 7 license. The Beta, RC and RTM trial codes are not qualifying licenses as they are not full product perpetual licenses. They are just limited time trials of pre-release product. Remember, just because something can be done physically, this in no way means that makes it legal.

Hopefully this helps address this question for those of you out there that did wonder this or have seen mentions of this floating around somewhere.

As I noted in an earlier post, I am going to be posting the answers to many of the questions I have received and continue to receive from my Regardless of what any hack says, a Windows 7 Upgrade is an Upgrade. What you need to know post here on the Blog, so please keep the feedback and input coming. You can see many of these questions and answers posted here:

More Answers from Windows 7 Upgrade Install Hack post

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman – Follow me on TWITTER and RSS
Global Partner Experience Lead
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

Bookmark on: MSDN , TechNet, and Expression

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Windows 7,Windows,upgrade,software,license,EULA,install,Windows XP,Eric Ligman,download,RTM,beta,RC,release candidate

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What versions of Windows qualify for the Windows 7 Retail Box upgrade?

2009-11-02T16:00:00Z

A question that has been raised by several people so far after reading my, “Regardless of what any hack says, a Windows 7 Upgrade is an Upgrade. What you need to know” post is, “You mentioned that you have to have a full license for a qualifying version of Windows to be eligible for the Windows 7 Retail Box upgrade. What are the qualifying versions of Windows for the Retail Box upgrade for Windows 7?”

The answer to this question is actually quite simple. To qualify for the Windows 7 Retail Box upgrade, your computer must have a full license for Windows XP (any edition) or Windows Vista (any edition). If you only have a license for any version prior to Windows XP, then you do not qualify for the Windows 7 Retail Box upgrade and would be required to purchase a Full Windows 7 license to run Windows 7 on your computer legally.

Now, a follow-up question that I did receive to this question from some readers of my Blog was, “You mention you have to have the FULL Windows license for either Windows XP or Windows Vista to qualify for the Windows 7 Retail Box upgrade; however, on my computer, I had Windows 2000 Professional and then upgraded it to Windows XP Professional through the Retail Box upgrade back then. Since my Windows XP license is the upgrade and not the full Windows XP license, do I still qualify?”

Let’s take a look at this scenario:

As you may have seen in several of my previous posts:

So in your scenario, you had a full Windows 2000 Professional license for your computer, then you added the Windows XP Professional Upgrade license to it. This would put you in the first example above, meaning you have a license to run Windows XP Professional on your computer. So if you now wish to add the Windows 7 Retail Box upgrade to that computer, you computer is licensed to run Windows XP Professional (because of the Windows 2000 Professional full license + the Windows XP Professional Upgrade), so you would qualify for the Windows 7 Retail Box upgrade for that computer.

I hope that helps answer your questions on this.

More Answers from Windows 7 Upgrade Install Hack post

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman – Follow me on TWITTER and RSS
Global Partner Experience Lead
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

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Answers from Windows 7 Upgrade Install Hack post coming on Monday

2009-10-31T16:18:50Z

After putting up my Regardless of what any hack says, a Windows 7 Upgrade is an Upgrade. What you need to know post earlier this week, I have been receiving a lot of great comments and questions being sent in to me, posted in the Blog comments, etc. If you have more, keep them coming as I always love the feedback from all of you. Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to answer nearly as many of them as I would have liked to this week (You may recall my “Work-life balance. What a scam…” post on that topic); however, starting Monday at 8:00 am PST, I’ll have several of these answers coming here to the Blog.

I’ll have multiple posts going up on Monday, with the topics and questions coming from ones I have received from all of you this past week. Several of the questions you all have submitted are great topics to cover and a quick reply in the comments section really wouldn’t do them justice. Because of this, I will provide what I believe and hope will be more complete answers to your questions, that will hopefully be more useful for you and all that read them. For those of you that have been following me over the years, as I’ve mentioned before, that’s all part of not being the person who writes the licenses and policies but gets to try and explain them. (You also know then that I RARELY ever Blog on the weekend either).

One answer in a post I will be putting up is about the supposed “target” (as some people seem to be phrasing it) of my Windows 7 Hack post, since it seems that some people are taking guesses and even stating these guesses as fact. In one instance, it was called out that a specific person was supposedly the “target” of the post and it was a complete impossibility that the person someone else wrote was a “target” of my post could have been. The complete irony is, I would have called this person out specifically as the poster-child on the RIGHT thing to do had I been aware of it. (Yes, I’ll include the details of that in one of Monday’s post as well).

So tune into the Blog on Monday and I’ll have several of those posts coming here, starting at 8:00 am PST. Well, maybe if I’m ahead of schedule I’ll start at 7:00 am PST, but 8:00 would be the latest. :-)

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman – Follow me on TWITTER and RSS
Global Partner Experience Lead
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

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No, OEM Microsoft Windows licenses cannot be transferred to another PC

2009-10-27T19:34:27Z

Earlier today I put up the , “Regardless of what any hack says, a Windows 7 Upgrade is an Upgrade. What you need to know,” post here on my Blog and shortly afterwards I received the following question offline:

“If I have an old PC with an OEM Windows license on it, can I just take that Windows license from that PC and us it to qualify for the Windows 7 upgrade?”

Transfer rights and OEM software are two topic that have been discussed here on the Blog quite a bit over the years, so I thought I would put this post together to directly address this question on OEM Windows licenses and transferability. Bottom line is, no, OEM Microsoft Windows licenses do not have any transfer rights and live and die on the original computer they are shipped with and installed on, period. Here’s a visual representation for you:

(Click for full size)

As you can see, the OEM Windows license is “locked” to the original PC it comes with and cannot be transferred to any other PC. So in this instance, the new PC would require a full Windows license, not an upgrade license in order to be licensed to run Microsoft Windows.

Here are some other posts I have put up in the past that may be helpful for you in terms of understanding transfer rights and OEM software:

** UPDATE: One of the readers of my Blog posted a comment to this post and reminded me of something that I had forgotten to include in the original write-up. Yes, in Germany specifically, OEM licenses can be transferred. This does apply to Germany specifically though, so everywhere else it holds true that OEM licenses cannot be transferred to a different computer. Thank you for pointing this out and reminding me. I appreciate that.

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman – Follow me on TWITTER and RSS
Global Partner Experience Lead
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

Bookmark on: MSDN , TechNet, and Expression

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Regardless of what any hack says, a Windows 7 Upgrade is an Upgrade. What you need to know.

2009-10-27T18:07:00Z

UPDATE: "Hack" identity and more answers from Windows 7 Upgrade Install posted HERE

First, the feedback, excitement, etc. we’ve been seeing since the launch of Windows 7 last week has been phenomenal! Thank you to all of you for providing your feedback to us to let us know how your Windows 7 experience is going.

Unfortunately, it looks like it is time to have this conversation again though. Over the past several days there have been various posts, etc. across a variety of social media engines stating that some “hack” (be it a person or a procedure) shows that a Windows 7 Upgrade disc can perform a “clean” installation of Windows 7 on a blank drive from a technical perspective. Of course, from the posts I saw, they often forgot to mention a very basic, yet very important piece of information… “Technically possible” does not always mean legal. Let me explain what I mean:

Here are some very basic facts:

When you purchase software, you are purchasing the rights to run the software according to the terms of the End User License Agreement (EULA) that comes with that software.
When you install that software, you are agreeing to the terms included in the EULA you purchased.
- a. For instance, in the Windows 7 EULA it states, “By using the software, you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, do not use the software. Instead, return it to the retailer for a refund or credit.”
When you purchase an Upgrade license, the included EULA states that you must already own a qualifying full license to upgrade from in order to use the Upgrade license, hence the term “Upgrade.”
- a. For instance, in the Windows 7 EULA it states, “To use upgrade software, you must first be licensed for the software that is eligible for the upgrade.”

To put it simply, here is a graphical representation of what this means:

General Example		Example with Product Names

In stark contrast to:

General Example		Example with Product Names

So when these posts and write-ups state that you can install clean from an Upgrade piece of software and they fail to mention that you need to own a qualifying software license to be legal to use the Upgrade software for the installation, they give the impression that because it is technically possible, it is legal to do. Unfortunately, by doing this, they irresponsibly put end users at risk of loading unlicensed software. Because of this, I am putting this post up to try and clarify the truth behind what an upgrade license is and provides so that hopefully people will not find themselves misled by some of these other posts and articles that may mislead them to believe something that is very wrong due to their lack of inclusion of this important piece of information. If the posts or write-ups you saw did include this information, then kudos to that writer for providing the accurate information.

Now there are many, many, many, many of you out there that already own Windows licenses that qualify for the Windows 7 Upgrade, so this is a non-issue for you. (I am talking about people who own a FULL license for a previous version of Windows for their computers already, as shown in the first picture example above.) For you, since you have the previous version FULL Windows license and qualify for the Windows 7 Upgrade, you have the rights to do a “clean” install.

For those of you without an existing FULL Windows license to upgrade from, you should be aware that an Upgrade license by itself is not a license to install and run Windows on your computer. (As an FYI, those who don’t own a full previous version Windows license, as in the second row of picture examples above, and just downloaded the Windows 7 Beta, RC, or RTM code during the trial phases, the Windows 7 Beta, RC, and RTM trials are not qualifying licenses for the upgrade since they are just trial software, not fully licensed software.) In order to be eligible to use the Windows 7 upgrade, you need to have a qualifying license to upgrade from. Again, that’s why it is called an “upgrade.” For you, Windows 7 is available pre-installed on PCs around the world today, or you can purchase a full Windows license from one of the many Microsoft Partners we have, or you can download it today. You might also want to check out some of the great “7 days of Windows 7 deals” going on right now, such as the “PC home makeover” offer that gets you a laptop, a netbook, and a desktop PC (all three with Windows 7 installed), plus a monitor, and wireless router, all for just $1,199!

I hope this helps clear up any confusion over what an “Upgrade” really is and is not and who qualifies to install and use an upgrade license in their move to Windows 7.

And please remember, No, OEM Microsoft Windows licenses cannot be transferred to another PC, in case you were wondering if an old OEM Windows license you have laying around or on another PC could qualify for the Windows 7 upgrade on a different PC.

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman – Follow me on TWITTER and RSS
Global Partner Experience Lead
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

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A new Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) Portal experience is coming soon. Give us your input.

2009-10-27T14:20:18Z

A new Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) Portal experience is coming soon, and we’d like to hear your questions and comments about the changes! As Allison Watson mentioned during WPC 2009, all of us in the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group are focused on enhancing the partner experience. We are working to significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to do business with Microsoft by simplifying your experience and connecting processes to create an easy to follow workflow. Now we are looking for your feedback.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be sharing more information on some of these important process changes to enhance your experience and we will provide live support with webinars and open hours where you can submit your questions and feedback directly to the product management team.

I invite you to post your questions and comments below about the upcoming changes. How can we help you grow your business and be successful in the coming years? What are your goals for your business and how can the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) Portal help you reach them?

You can give us your input and feedback in a variety of ways:

Post your comments and feedback directly to this Blog post below
Post your comments and thoughts on Twitter and use the #MPN4U hashtag in your tweet
Send us your comments and feedback through Email

By the way, don't forget to also follow the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group on Twitter and Facebook for the most up to date release information as well.

Many thanks for your support and we look forward to hearing from you,

Todd Weatherby
GM, Product Management
Microsoft Corporation

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Windows 7 is here! Props to Microsoft Europe for this Windows 7 Video

2009-10-22T14:10:26Z

As I posted earlier this morning, today is the Windows 7 launch day and you are all invited to watch the Windows 7 Launch Event Live from New York online. Well, the Microsoft Europe Team posted a Windows 7 video for the launch and I thought I would share it out because they did a great job on this, in my opinion. Here it is:

As always, I’d love to hear your input and feedback as well.

Be sure to join us for the Windows 7 launch event online starting at 8:00 am PST today!

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman – Follow me on TWITTER and RSS
Global Partner Experience Lead
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

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Watch the Windows 7 Launch Event Live from New York here online

2009-10-22T13:21:07Z

The wait is over and today marks the day of Windows 7 general availability launch worldwide! Windows 7 has been setting pre-order sales records and getting great reviews from beta testers, Partners, press, analysts, and more and now it is available for everyone.

At 8:00 am PST, the live launch event from New York City will begin, and we are sharing it out worldwide online. Below is a player that will begin streaming the event once it begins, so grab your coffee (or any favorite beverage) and breakfast (if you’re on the West Coast or just a late riser) and get ready to join us for this momentous event!

Here are some other Windows 7 items that you may be interested in:

Interactive map to find out about key launch events and customers around the world who are already running Windows 7.
Windows 7 video gallery
Windows 7 on Microsoft.com

Here are some of the Windows 7 posts from recently that you may also be interested in:

I hope you can join us for the Windows 7 launch event today!

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman – Follow me on TWITTER and RSS
Global Partner Experience Lead
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

Bookmark on: MSDN , TechNet, and Expression

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